Composite technology offers a wide variety of advantages including a high strength to weight ratio. Thus, composite systems are now used in mobile platforms such as aircraft and spacecraft for a variety of structural components.
Those skilled in the art are also studying higher and more complex levels of system integration. In but one example, it would be useful to integrate antennas into composite aircraft wing panels or other aircraft structures such as a panel of a fuselage or a portion of a door, or to apply or attach antennas to an aircraft. Current design challenges include how to provide sufficient dielectric separation between the radiating antenna elements and the ground plane of the antenna. Plated through hole printed circuit board technology cannot be used in connection with such advanced systems due to the inability to form via structures in lightweight dielectric materials (e.g. open cell foams), and/or the inability to form very high aspect ratio vias in dielectric materials. Also, it would be desirable to integrate the electrical bus extending between the antenna and this electronic subsystem into the aircraft structure. Otherwise, the weight savings provided by composite technology will suffer and the cost of using composite technology will be prohibitive.